Jakarta. South Korea has barred an Indonesian engineer from leaving the country for the coming months following data theft allegations concerning the KF-21 fighter jet.

The individual in question is an engineer at the state-owned aerospace firm Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI), according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. 

PTDI has been working with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) on developing the KF-21 fighter jets. But South Korea not long ago had accused the said engineer of attempting to store classified data of the aircraft on a USB drive. South Korea also imposed a travel ban on the engineer amid an investigation into the data theft allegations.

“The engineer cannot leave South Korea until April. But this [travel ban] is simply to make sure that the verification process goes well,” Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, the spokesperson at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Monday.

“But do keep in mind that this person is not detained. The Indonesian engineer is free, and is only barred from leaving South Korea [for the time being],” Lalu said.

Lalu did not refer to the individual by name. PTDI had appointed the said person as a chief engineer of its team on the KF-21 project. When asked by the Jakarta Globe what Indonesia would do if the PTDI engineer was proven guilty of the KF-21 data theft, Lalu said he refused to make any hypothesis. 

“But what is clear is that we are currently trying to verify those accusations by gathering as much information as we can,” the Indonesian diplomat said.

Indonesia is now looking into all the facts related to the case. The Indonesian embassy in Seoul is also in communication with the South Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry and other related institutions. 

Amidst an ongoing data theft probe, South Korea is still waiting for Indonesia to pay its debts on the KF-21 project.  Indonesia agreed to bear 20 percent of the project costs, which reached approximately 1.7 trillion won (about $1.3 billion). In exchange, Indonesia will get a prototype and technology transfer to manufacture 48 jets at home. KBS World reported that Indonesia had only paid 227.2 billion won until January 2019, meaning that Jakarta still has around 1 trillion won in debt.

“But I believe that is for the Defense Ministry [to respond] as they are the one who handles the payment,” Lalu said when asked about Indonesia's plans to pay the KF-21 debt.